Sudden chaotic transitions in an optically injected semiconductor laser

We study sudden changes in the chaotic output of an optically injected semiconductor laser. For what is believed to be the first time in this system, we identify bifurcations that cause abrupt changes between different chaotic outputs, or even sudden jumps between chaotic and periodic output. These sudden chaotic transitions involve attractors that exist for large regions in parameter space.     

Radio-over-fiber AM-to-FM upconversion using an optically injected semiconductor laser

A radio-over-fiber system uses light to carry a microwave subcarrier on optical fibers. The microwave is usually frequency modulated for wireless broadcasting. A conventional optical communication system usually operates at the baseband with amplitude modulation. The interface of the two systems thus needs an upconversion from the baseband to the microwave band with AM-to-FM transformation. An all-optical solution employing an optically injected semiconductor laser is investigated. The laser is operated in a dynamic state, where its intensity oscillates at a microwave frequency that varies with the injection strength. When the injection carries AM data, the microwave is frequency modulated accordingly. We demonstrate optical conversion from an OC-12 622-Mbps AM baseband signal to the corresponding FM microwave signal. The microwave is centered at 15.90 GHz. A bit-error rate of less than 10(-9) is measured.     

光注入半导体激光器产生可调谐高频微波

利用光注入半导体激光器产生的单周期振荡,实验获得了61—129 GHz范围内频率连续可调的微波光信号.同时利用半导体激光器速率方程,对光注入半导体激光器产生高频微波进行了数值模拟.模拟和实验结果均表明微波信号产生于注入光和激光器腔模之间的拍频现象,其频率随着注入光强度和波长失谐的增大而增大,模拟结果预测该方法可以产生频率大于40 GHz的高频微波. 关键词： 光通信 光生微波 拍频 半导体激光器     

Random bit generation using an optically injected semiconductor laser in chaos with oversampling

Random bit generation is experimentally demonstrated using a semiconductor laser driven into chaos by optical injection. The laser is not subject to any feedback so that the chaotic waveform possesses very little autocorrelation. Random bit generation is achieved at a sampling rate of 10 GHz even when only a fractional bandwidth of 1.5 GHz within a much broader chaotic bandwidth is digitized. By retaining only 3 least significant bits per sample, an output bit rate of 30 Gbps is attained. The approach requires no complicated postprocessing and has no stringent requirement on the electronics bandwidth.     

Dependence of the experimental stability diagram of an optically injected semiconductor laser on the laser current

An experimental study of the dynamical properties of a semiconductor laser subjected to external optical injection is presented. The effect of the laser current on the dynamical regions as found in an experiment is reported on for the first time. The nonlinear dynamical regions are mapped in the parameter plane consisting of the detuning between lasers and the injection strength, by utilizing a method of condensing the information in output spectra to two-dimensional images. Corresponding maps for different values of the slave laser current are recorded. The recordings present conclusive experimental evidence that the overall locations of the dynamical regions scale with respect to the relaxation–oscillation frequency and the injection strength relative to the free running laser power. The results further support the theoretical prediction that the linewidth-enhancement factor is the parameter which most strongly affects the dynamics. Locally, specific chaotic regions are found to grow for higher operating points of the slave laser. A complete characterization of the parameters that enter the rate-equations for the visible output AlGaInP laser used in this experiment is performed.     

Reconfigurable dynamic all-optical chaotic logic operations in an optically injected VCSEL

In a chaotic system of vertical cavity surface emitting laser(VCSEL) with external optical-injection, we propose a novel implementation scheme for reconfigurable dynamic all-optical chaotic logic operations(AOCLOs). Under different key parameters, such as the bias current, the injection strength and the frequency detuning of the injected light field and the VCSEL, we also explore the evolutions of the polarization-bistability with the amplitude of the injected light field when the output of VCSEL is chaotic wave. According to the dynamic evolutions, we find out the optimal value of the frequency detuning that is considered as a control logic signal, and further implement different AOCLOs, such as AND, NAND, OR,NOR, XOR, and XNOR, by controlling the logic operation of the control logic signal between two logic inputs. Moreover,the ability to reconstruct these logic operations is demonstrated under relatively low noise strength of the spontaneous emission.     

Tailoring enhanced chaos in optically injected semiconductor lasers

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the injection of two optical signals into a semiconductor laser can be a feasible and practical method of enhancing chaos, influencing the stability map and generating various nonlinear dynamics.     

Intracavity chaotic dynamics in ring lasers with an injected signal

The intracavity dynamics of optically injected ring lasers is studied by means of an extended delay-differential Ikeda model. The behavior of this kind of lasers is, in some aspects, strikingly different from that of a nonlinear absorber placed in a ring cavity, for which the Ikeda model was originally derived. In particular, chaotic behavior in the laser case is seen to occur on much faster time scales than for the absorber. The scenario in which the transition to chaos occurs is also different.     

Photonic crystal nanocavity laser in an optically very thick slab

A photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity formed in an optically very thick slab can support reasonably high-Q modes for lasing. Experimentally, we demonstrate room-temperature pulsed lasing operation from the PhC dipole mode emitting at 1324 nm, which is fabricated in an InGaAsP slab with thickness (T) of 606 nm. Numerical simulation reveals that when T≥800 nm, over 90% of the laser output power couples to the PhC slab modes, suggesting a new route toward an efficient in-plane laser for photonic integrated circuits.     

Phase and spectral properties of optically injected semiconductor lasers

The main control parameters of a single mode semiconductor laser submitted to an injected external signal are the power and the frequency of the injected signal. Following their magnitude, many phenomena can be observed such as phase locking, frequency locking, frequency generation, push-pull effects, hysteresis phenomena and chaos,... We show here that the spectral signature of the slave laser enables a better understanding of the the nonlinear interaction between the two competing sources: the spontaneous emission and the external field for which spectra are equally amplified through the active medium. This amplification is then strongly dependent on their coherency. We describe the role of the injected laser as a filter and an amplifier. It follows that the laser can be used to process information in ways that are not yet completely exploited. To cite this article: S. Blin et al., C. R. Physique 4 (2003).     

Route to broadband optical chaos generation and synchronization using dual-path optically injected semiconductor lasers

The generation and synchronization of broadband optical chaos in dual-path optically injected (DPOI) semiconductor lasers (SLs) are numerically demonstrated. The effective bandwidth enhancement is achieved up to about 35.84 GHz, under appropriate injection strength and frequency detuning. We systematically study and compare the bandwidth enhancement in single-path optically injected SLs (SPOI-SLs) and DPOI-SLs, and find that better performance can be obtained for the latter over a larger parameter span. Furthermore, two schemes for synchronization of bandwidth-enhanced chaos generated in two similar or identical (twin) DPOI-SLs are proposed, where the twins are driven by a common DPOI signal injected from another chaotic SL. High-quality chaos synchronization, an isochronous type, is observed between the twin DPOI-SLs. Also, the effect of parameter mismatch and frequency detuning is numerically examined. The simple technique of bandwidth enhancement using dual-path injection may pave way for various applications such as high-speed random number generators (RNGs) and chaos-based communications.     

基于光注入Fabry-Perot半导体激光器实现同步全光分路时钟提取与波长转换

提出了一种利用Fabry-Perot（FP）半导体激光器同步提取波长转换的分路光时钟的新方法,并对该方法进行了数值模拟和实验验证.光注入半导体激光器会产生非线性单周期振荡特性,利用交叉增益调制效应及对单周期振荡的微波锁频效应,可从光时分复用信号中提取出波长转换的分路光时钟.采用一个FP半导体激光器作为全光分路时钟提取及波长转换器,数值模拟实现了从波长为1555 nm、速率为2×20 Gb/s的光时分复用信号中提取出波长转换为1550 nm、重复频率为20 GHz的分路光时钟,实验完成了从波长为155024 nm、重复频率为1236 GHz光脉冲信号中提取出相位噪声为-105 dBc/Hz的波长为154591 nm、重复频率618 GHz的分频光时钟.此外还详细研究了注入光功率、波长失谐、FP激光器偏置电流及纵模选择对光时钟提取的影响,实验结果和数值模拟结果符合.该方法在光时分复用混合波分复用通信系统中实现全光解复用及波长路由有着重要的应用价值. 关键词： 波长转换 时钟提取 光注入 非线性动力学     

Bifurcation transitions in an optically injected diode laser: theory and experiment

We show how bifurcation theory and experimental measurements can be used hand-in-hand to analyse transitions to complicated dynamics in a semiconductor laser subject to optical injection. By a direct comparison of theoretical and experimental optical spectra we identify and explain the underlying dynamics in phase space. This is demonstrated with four distinct bifurcation transitions, including a transition near a saddle-node Hopf point and an intermittent transition to chaos.     

Synchronization between optically injected semiconductor lasers on undamped relaxation oscillations

Seeding light from a laser into the cavity of a second one is a simple experiment largely encountered in optical domain (Stover, H.L., Steier, W.H.: Appl. Phys. Lett. 8, 91–93 (1966); Lang, R.: IEEE J. Quant. Elect. 18(6), 976–983 (1982)). With an unidirectional coupling, optical injection is a basic tool to study synchronization process between oscillators. The dynamics induced in this experiment have been extensively described, theoretically and experimentally (Simpson, T.B. et al.: Quant. Semiclassical Opt. 9(5), 765–784 (1997); Wieczorek S.: Opt. Commun. 172, 279–295 (1999); Blin, S.: Comptes Rendus de la Phys. 4(6), 687–699 (2003)) but mainly when the seeded light is a continuous wave (CW). In this paper, we describe the synchronization on an undamped relaxation regime. In order to study the degree of correlation between the two synchronized lasers (TL and RL), we use a cascade of two optical injections (Guignard, C.: Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics—the Europeen Quant. Electronics Conference (CLEO-EQEC), Munich (Germany), EC1M (2003)) thus three lasers: Master-transmitter laser (TL)-receiver laser (RL). The seeding by a field showing undamped relaxations can be directly compared with the optical injection by a CW signal, especially when the injected power and the detuning between the TL and RL frequencies are varied. Synchronization on undamped relaxation are shown to occur at values of the optical injected power and detuning, for which the RL is in the locked or wave-mixing regime when it is seeded by a CW. However, additional tongues of synchronization also exist at detuning equal to the relaxation oscillation frequency (ROF).     

Speckle control using high-frequency signal superposition to semiconductor laser

Speckle contrast of images generated by a red semiconductor laser was measured precisely utilizing a state-of-the-art speckle measurement system with a cooled CCD camera with auto-light-power-level adjustments. By using high-frequency signal (～500 MHz) superposition to the single-mode semiconductor laser, the 3 dB spectrum of the laser beam was broadened from 0.1 to 2.3 nm. As a result, the speckle contrast value was drastically reduced from 0.9 to 0.2.     

Photonic ultrawideband monocycle pulse generation using a single electro-optic modulator

A compact approach to photonic-assisted ultrawideband (UWB) monocycle pulse generation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the wavelength dependence of the half-wave voltage of a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). By employing a single MZM with dual-wavelength injection at around 1310 and 1550 nm, a pair of polarity-reversed monocycle pulses with the full width at half-maximum of about 80 ps and the fractional bandwidth of greater than 160% can be generated. The experiment results agree well with the theoretical prediction. The simple setup and the convenience to control the monocycle pulse polarity are favorable for future applications.     

Experimental control of a chaotic semiconductor laser

We have experimentally controlled the chaotic output of a single-mode semiconductor laser pumped near threshold and subject to optical feedback. We used a novel technique called dynamic targeting, which was theoretically proposed by Wieland et al. [Opt. Lett. 22, 469 (1997)]. Optical feedback causes the semiconductor laser to undergo a bifurcation cascade that exhibits regions of stability, periodicity, chaos, and coherence collapse. By adjusting the feedback phase simultaneously as the feedback strength was varied we steered the laser into the stable maximum gain mode, and thus we stabilized the system at maximum intensity.     

Properties of an optically magnetized semiconductor

It is shown that the magnetization of a semiconductor by optical means can lead to the existence of two unequal chemical potentials in the degenerate carrier population. The resulting birefringent effects in an otherwise isotropic material are calculated, and it is shown that near resonance these effects can become relatively large for moderate pumping intensities.